Eduloan chief marketing and sales officer, Charlotte Smit, congratulated Action Ambro’s for winning a leader award in the category for social media (social media platforms) and a gold award for integrated direct marketing campaigns. “This award confirms that we are talking to young people in an effective way. Our innovative campaign for potential students to ‘bring the buck’ was a fun way for students to learn about our services. Combining it with a competition where they could win money towards their studies ensured that we used the interactive side of social media as well,” says Smit.

She says the campaign fitted in perfectly with the theme for this year’s awards, 'Diversity in Direct', which was a call to celebrate the unique South African perspective and our distinct way of doing things.“The word play on ‘buck’ in our campaign was uniquely South African.”

The Assegai Awards reward direct-marketing campaigns for exceptional results which are best-in-class examples and raise the bar for the whole industry regarding breakthrough strategy, creative brilliance and outstanding results.

Kim Forresto, managing director of Action Ambro’s, said it has been a privilege to work with a brave client such as Eduloan. “Eduloan was prepared to trust us with their most important campaign of the year and once the results started rolling, we knew we’d created something special together. With expectations higher than ever to deliver on results, fully integrated campaigns have become the foundation of successful advertising. In the hottest contested categories, with such high standards from all competing agencies at this year’s Assegais, we couldn’t be happier with these accolades.”

Action Ambro’s had to come up with a campaign to increase brand awarenessand study loan applications. The budget was limited and to reach its target audience of tertiary education students and matric graduates as well as their parents in a highly engaging way, social media was used.

“We decided to create a trend using the buck mascot ‘Ed’ in an interactive campaign where students could build their own mascots using a downloaded template. They could use these mascots to decorate their residences and enter a competition,” says Forresto.

It also counted in Action Ambro’s favour that the campaign spoke to students in a simple, striking, cheeky and highly relevant way, online, where students live their lives very often. “We cut through the campus clutter and turned students into mobile billboards and brand ambassadors for Eduloan. All it required was a few printed bucks and small campus activations, before the campaign took on a life of its own online, where we literally showed students what an extra buck can do,” he says.

For more information, visit ww.eduloan.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook and Twitter.